Cedar Rapids council greeted in its new downtown home

CEDAR RAPIDS - A crowd late Tuesday afternoon packed the new City Council chambers in what had been a courtroom in the former federal courthouse here to welcome the council back to the downtown after a near three-year hiatus caused by the 2008 flood.

Among the greeters, Dee Baird, interim president of the Cedar Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce, called the council's return to a new home in the old courthouse “an incredible milestone” and she said it was part of the community's effort to “create a future that is brighter and more distinct that our past.”

Doug Neumann, president/CEO of the Cedar Rapids Downtown District, applauded the council for bringing city government back downtown to a building that sits along a river that caused so much damage back in 2008.

“I think it is very important that this city government decided to send a signal to the community that the river is something to embrace and not to flee,” Neumann said. “Certainly, we understand the power and the danger of the river. But we also understand the beauty and the attractiveness of the river and the amenity that it is and the great asset that it is to this community.”

Jack Evans, president of the Hall-Perrine Foundation, told the crowd that the city's “nomadic” council was returning downtown during an appropriate time, the graduation season. He said the renovation of the former courthouse into a new home for City Hall is part of a wave of renovation and construction projects to come that will see the downtown “graduate” into something more than it had been.

“A nice library will graduate to a world-class library,” Evans said. “A tired convention center will be transformed into a state-of-the-art convention center. A pleasant performing arts facility will become a wonderful performing arts facility. And, finally, a struggling arts district will graduate to a thriving district with performance venues, museums, markets and their attendant excitement.”

Evans then added what he called “a shameless plug,” asking people to vote on May 3 to pass the extension of the city's local-option sales tax to help pay for a flood-protection system to protect “the graduates I just talked about.”

Chuck Peters, CEO of SourceMedia Group, gave city leaders photos taken by a Gazette photographer of both the new City Hall and the Veterans Memorial Building, which had been home to City Hall, during a tougher time - the flood of 2008.

City Manager Jeff Pomeranz handed out a color photo of the new City Hall to those in attendance that he said he especially liked because the photo - taken by photographer Mark Trumbauer - shows the Veterans Memorial Building in the background.

The renovation of the former courthouse will continue even as the council members hold meetings in the council chambers. City offices are expected to move into the building in the summer of 2012. Meanwhile, renovation of the Veterans Memorial Building also will take place. The city intends to use some space there for city government functions while the Veterans Memorial Commission plans to use more of the building than it had in the past.

At 5:30 p.m., the City Council began its first formal meeting in the new council chambers.